Kidnapped

Dir: Marco Bellocchio | Italy, France, Germany | 134 mins | Subtitled

Cast | Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi

Veteran Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio (Fists in the Pocket, The Conviction) brings to life a true story lifted from the pages of a shocking history.

Bologna, 1858: A six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, is taken from his family by the Catholic Church amid claims that he was baptised by the family’s maid as a baby. While the distraught Mortara family fight to get him back, they find themselves at the epicentre of a wider historical battle between the forces of Catholic authoritarianism and the growing opposition movement.

A gripping portrait of a Jewish community in turmoil, shot in glowing dark tones like a Caravaggio painting come to life, Kidnapped sees Bellocchio examine a problematic part of Italy’s past and the perennial need to resist totalitarianism.